Almost fifty years on, we’re still learning from Antjie Krog’s words and activism.
Johannesburg, South Africa (10 October 2025) – Antjie Krog received a wonderful honour this week! The University of Johannesburg conferred an honorary doctorate on the legendary South African poet, writer, journalist and public thinker.
The ceremony, part of UJ’s Spring graduations, honoured a voice that has shaped (and challenged) South Africa’s conversation for more than 50 years.
Krog’s impact encompasses a great deal. She’s made language feel raw and alive through her poetry. She’s the journalist who helped the country listen during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission years, and the translator who carried Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom into Afrikaans as Lang Pad na Vryheid.
Over the years, she’s scooped just about every big award for poetry, journalism and translation in South Africa.
This includes the Hertzog Prize for poetry (three times), and her non-fiction classic Country of My Skull won the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award in 1999. Internationally, she’s won the Stockholm Prize from the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture, and the Dutch Gouden Ganzenveer.
Her work has travelled far beyond our borders, having been translated in over eight languages.
In her lifetime of dancing with words, she has given us thirteen volumes of poetry.
Her journey with poetry started at 17 when she was still a schoolgirl in Kroonstad. She penned a poem that called out apartheid. It set the tone for a career where she never held back from saying what needed to be said.
Now 72, she is still making an impact with her words.
UJ’s Dean of Humanities, Professor Kammila Naidoo, called her “a literary giant whose work continues to inspire generations of scholars, leaders, and innovators,” adding “They serve as great role models for all of us who want to see a great UJ, a great South Africa, and a great Africa.”
And because it’s Antjie Krog, she didn’t just give a speech when she received her honorary title this week, she performed a poem.
Big applause for the doctorate. But also for the body of work that made it inevitable. The poems that bite and bless and the activism that shaped a new South Africa.
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